"Beautiful," an acrylic painting by Marlene Baptiste and donated by the Ingraldi family, is one of seven pieces of public art hanging outside of the Goodwill store and donation center at 1082 Gatlin Blvd. in Port St. Lucie.

An information box should have accompanied my Tuesday column about the Move to Amend movement. Here is the missing information:

What: David Cobb, founder of Move to Amend, will speak about how to remove the undue influence of money from our political system and return it to one for and by the people.

To the casual observer, the bright yellow and blue building on Gatlin Boulevard looks like just another Goodwill donation center. For the city of Port St. Lucie, though, it represents a landmark of sorts.

The 14,000-square-foot thrift store is the first building in the city to adopt a rule that new commercial structures should include a substantial piece of art visible to the public.

Since 2007, the city has been grappling with an ordinance that requires developers of new nonresidential buildings to include public art on site. Or they may pay a fee in lieu of actually adding sculpture or paintings to their building. That money, currently about $15,000, is held in a special fund and cannot be spent on anything other than public art.

Yet bringing the ordinance to life has proved to be a long and laborious process, complicated partly by the recession, the general dearth of new commercial buildings going up in the city, and the actual process of setting up the advisory board.

The Goodwill store — the fifth one in St. Lucie County — opened Friday and already seems extremely popular with customers, although most of them I saw Wednesday seemed oblivious to the giant yellow flowers and a purple and yellow fish murals adorning the building.

The large painted panels on the front of the building are enlarged versions of artwork created by developmentally or physically handicapped participants in Goodwill's Transitions program.

Normally, the city ordinance requires a developer to pay a fee to the city based on the footprint of the new building. The developer can then choose to add art or leave the fee in the city's hands. The city is planning to allocate the unused money to create its own public art — a mural on a prominent wall at City Hall.

In Goodwill's case, however, developer Peter Ingraldi sought City Council's permission to use Goodwill participants to create the artwork themselves. Instead of paying the city $32,000, Ingraldi was allowed to pay $15,000 to Goodwill for the materials and then make another $15,250 donation to Goodwill's Transitions program.

City and Goodwill officials alike are delighted with the results.

City Director of Planning Daniel Holbrook said while City Council has consistently supported the concept of public art, there has been pushback from some in the development industry. Tough times made paying extra fees to the city unpopular to some people, Holbrook admitted.

Yet an amended version of the public art ordinance scheduled to go before City Council in March should turn that negative into a positive. The new advisory board will include representatives from the St. Lucie Chamber of Commerce and the Treasure Coast Builders Association — both of whom had expressed reservations about the public art program, Holbrook said.

Richard Gabel, executive director of the Arts & Cultural Alliance of St. Lucie County. is also a member of the PSL advisory board.

"For many, public art is the first impression and exposure to art in the community," Gabel explained. "Public art helps define our city ... and helps us feel the vibrancy and quality of life. Just as with parks and other gathering places, public art provides a means to connect people."

Gabel also pointed out that public art provides jobs for local artists and can favorably impact economic development because it often translates into higher rents or more desirable office locations.

PSL residents should be seeing a lot more public art soon. Both the Martin Memorial hospital and the Mann Research Center now going up in Tradition will include significant public art.

Scott Samples of Martin Memorial Health System said the new $134 million hospital will have more than $50,000 of artwork on its walls and in the main lobby. Nature photographs by iconic St. Lucie County rancher Bud Adams, work by Stuart photographer Diane Dultmeier and a bronze statue by Stuart sculptor Geoffrey Smith will grace the new building.

It's good to see public art showing its face in Port St. Lucie. It's something that's long been lacking in the city. Let's hope the big guys in Tradition — where community developers are also talking about adding more artwork to areas around the lake — will spur smaller builders to follow suit.

Other cities — Lake Placid and its murals comes to mind — have even parlayed their collections of public art into tourist attractions. Imagine tourists of the future being attracted to PSL for golf, spring training AND art. Stranger things have happened.